Oven-baked meatballs

Fond of meatballs but don't want to go through the fuss of frying? Now you can have it with the help of an oven. When I first saw this recipe from a magazine, I was pretty excited and immediately got the necessary ingredients and try it out. This is a dish that is exceptionally simple to make yet taste just as nice.

Ingredients:

egg

minced meat (any meat to your liking)

chopped onion, garlic, carrot and parsley which i have forgotten to buy (you can also add in any other vegetables to add more colour and flavours)

breadcrumbs (if you do not have any, make on the spot by toasting a piece of white bread, put it in the re-sealable plastic bag and then crush on it)

cooking spray comes in useful to spray on the tray so your meatballs don't stick on it

Method:

Prepare all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix everything evenly. Add in some olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.

Scoop small balls and place on tray. Try and make balls as even as possible and not too big. A maximum diameter of 1.5cm is good enough.

When ready, place in oven with a temperature of 180°C for 15-20 minutes.

Your cooked meatballs should look like something above.

Hope you can try this out for the upcoming Christmas celebration.

HAPPY Christmas readers & Happy Eating!!! ^.^

Home-made Korean Chap Jae

I love Korean food and this dish actually debuts my Korean cooking. "Chap jae" or literally translated as "fried glass noodle" is a simple dish which most Koreans love. It can be done with or without meat; a perfect dish even for the vegans. As for my first trial, I have decided to do it with meat to add in more flavours.
Ingredients:

 Korean glass noodles (boiled before frying)

meat (seasoned with soya sauce, pepper and corn flour)

chopped garlic and onion

sliced carrot (boiled first)

egg

sliced cabbage and mushroom (boiled first)

Method:

Heat oil in a wok, and put in garlic. Stir fry til light golden brown. Then, add in onion and the seasoned meat. This step can be skipped if you choose to omit meat. Add in boiled noodles and vegetables. Stir for a little while and then add in egg. Mix some sesame oil, soya sauce, sugar, salt and pepper and continue stirring til all is mixed well.

Optional:
You can also add on some chilli flakes as celery for stronger flavours.

a good plate of chap jae should have its noodles springy

Hope you have a good time cooking this dish. Happy weekend folks! ^.^

Recipes for spaghetti

A few years ago, i discovered that i actually have a deep passion for cooking. Perhaps i inherited it from my father. It doesn't take me a long time to understand a recipe and eventually know how to execute it.
I didn't have much time to cook then when i was working. Recently, i took my free time to explore more recipes and even improvise some. Cooking gives me a sense of satisfaction and in fact i find cooking a very good way to distress myself.
This post shows some of my pasta recipes. Pasta is one of my favorite recipe as it is easy to do and can cook with almost anything over the shelf.

 aglio olio spaghetti with broccoli 

 fried spaghetti with minced meat and vegetables 

ham and egg fried spaghetti

As you can see, cooking is really not that hard if your taste-buds work just fine. ;p

A little improvisation gives you almost a whole new recipe ...well literally!

p/s: Do drop me a comment if you are ever interested to have any of these recipes ;)

Mapo tofu aka braised bean curd with chilli

I love to cook. I have been cooking since the day i knew how to cook! *hahaha* I have done western, italian and chinese cuisines. I have to try baking though. 

My all-time favorite, 1 dish to go with 1 bowl of rice is the "mapo tofu". It is an exceptionally a simple yet affordable dish. The cost of ingredients totals to less than rm3, cooks for 2 portions. 

The ingredients you need for mapo tofu is: tofu, chilli bean paste (better known as "dou ban jiang", 豆瓣醬), fermented bean paste, minced onion and chilli paste (depending on how spicy you want it be). Most people add minced meat into this recipe. You can always improvise your own recipe by putting in other stuff as well, just make sure it is something which blends well with tofu. 

Add some spring onion to garnish your dish and make it more colourful. I didn't put them though because i never like the smell of spring onion. ;)

i used to go to Japs/ Taiwan restaurants and order a plate of mapo tofu to eat with a bowl of rice but now i prefer cooking it on my own :)

Chocolate Truffle

I have always love chocolate. Who doesn't? This is actually my first trial of dessert-making and so I chose to make something i love instead. Perhaps passion could reduce the blunders. And, I am making the rather easy-to-make chocolate truffles or some call it chocolate fudge.
So, here are the ingredients you need for this recipe:

almond...must be roasted

d

dried apricots...chopped dried apricots (inset)

 butter

c

condensed milk

cooking chocolate

After about 30 minutes of double-boiling the cooking chocolate, butter and condensed milk, this is what you get.

You can then throw in the chopped dried apricots and then scoop into the paper cups as follow. Then put them to chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

as you can see, i am being very generous with my almonds :D

tada!!  my end product

If you do not want to use paper cups, you also also pour the mixture onto a tray and then cut them into pieces after the are chilled enough.
End product looks good...Taste not bad but i personally feel it's a little too sweet. So, i'll most probably reduce the condensed milk or use full cream milk instead.

More recipes coming your way...Till then, happy eating and happy cooking!! ^.^